InterContinental Hotels is savvy to recognize that it needs to go beyond the low-hanging fruit of converting lookers into bookers, and needs to be involved in earlier and later phases of the guest journey. Amadeus has experience with some of these things on the airline side of things, but it remains to be seen how effective it will translate into hotels.

— Dennis Schaal

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InterContinental Hotels Group wants to get deeper into all phases of the travel cycle — not just the planning and booking part — so it entered into a strategic technology relationship with Amadeus to further those ambitions.

Amadeus stated in a blog post today that the agreement with IHG supports its mission to create a community model, or common technology platform, for the hotel industry, much as Amadeus did in getting the Star Alliance to accept its Altea platform as a common airline IT platform for the alliance.

An IHG spokesperson declined to provide much detail on the partnership, saying it is in its initial “planning and development” phase, and that the hotel chain is looking at all the stages of the travel cycle — dream, plan, book, travel and share — “quite broadly” to see how Amadeus technology might help IHG.

“IHG is a brand and consumer driven company,” says Eric Pearson, IHG’s chief information officer. “We use insight to anticipate consumer trends and behaviour. We also have a long track record of investing in relevant technologies to support our brand promise and build a closer relationship with our guests. Partnering with Amadeus will help us continue to do just that. We look forward to working with them.”

Photo Credit: The night falls on the Intercontinental Geneva where U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and foreign ministers of five other world powers joined talks on Iran's contested nuclear program on November 23, 2013. Denis Balibouse / Reuters